# Limiting the number of caracter displayed

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 22, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635 "2006-03-22T17:06:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weirdmonkey)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635/1 "2006-03-22T17:06:13Z")

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Hi!

I have a list of items with description but would like to show only the  
first words of the description and link to the full item detail page.

How can I do that ?

Thank you!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weirdmonkey)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635/2 "2006-03-22T18:02:00Z")

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weirdmonkey wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I have a list of items with description but would like to show only the  
> first words of the description and link to the full item detail page.
> 
> How can I do that ?
> 
> Thank you!

Think truncate is what you need.

See

> **[ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/TextHelper.html#M000417)**
>
> The TextHelper module provides a set of methods for filtering, formatting and transforming strings, which can reduce the amount of inline Ruby code in your views.

Then you can just do a link\_to with “more info” as the text.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weirdmonkey)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635/3 "2006-03-22T18:15:33Z")

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Wow !

Thank you very much Chris!

I just need to add the my view \<%= product.description.truncate %\> right  
?

(i’m a beginner when it comes to dynamic websites so excuses my poor  
knowledge hehe)

++

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@weirdmonkey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weirdmonkey)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-the-number-of-caracter-displayed/55635/4 "2006-03-22T18:37:08Z")

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No prob. I’m a newb myself, though have done a little php. 🙂

Actually what you need is: \<%= truncate(product.description, 50, “:::”)  
%\>

Those last two parameters are optional and I’ve just chosen 50 and “:::”  
arbitrarily. It defaults to 30 (characters) and “…”